A new study conducted at Texas A&M University by the Texas Transportation Institute comparing voice-to-text and traditional texting using a smartphone in an actual driving environment. The people behind the study report that the findings show using voice-to-text services are no safer than texting manually while driving.

"In each case, drivers took about twice as long to react as they did when they weren't texting," Christine Yager, who headed the study, told Reuters. "Eye contact to the roadway also decreased, no matter which texting method was used."

The researchers involved in the study used 43 different drivers and had them drive along a test track repeatedly while performing various tasks. The participants drove along the track, with no electronic devices in the car to distract them during one session. The participants then drove along the same test track while using voice to text applications on a smartphone, and another time the drivers drove along the same track on texting manually. Participants used both the iPhone and Android devices during the test.

Interestingly, the study found that using speech to text actually took longer for drivers than traditional texting because the need to go back and correct the often garbled texts composed using voice services.

The study highlights a significant safety concern in that while it found drivers were no safer using voice-to-text services as opposed to manually texting, drivers reported feeling safer when using the former.

Several states and individual cities around the country currently have laws on the books banning texting while driving without using a hands-free device. California is one such state where it is illegal to manually text while driving, but it is legal to send text messages using voice-controlled devices. Many automotive manufacturers are also integrating technology into their vehicles supporting hands-free services for phone calls and texting. One of the most popular is Ford Sync, which is available on nearly every Ford vehicle.

quote: You don't get to say "I'll take personal responsibility" and just move on after you destroy someones whole life.

Well, you kind of do. You get charged with manslaughter, the insurance you've paid for gives the victims a chunk of money, and in all likelihood the victims bring a civil suit against you for damages. In those ways you take responsibility for your actions. In the same way you would if a moose walked out in front of your car, and you/your car killed someone else in the aftermath.

Sure, you likely don't "move on" to the life you had before, but you don't cease to exist either.

I'm not saying you cease to exist, obviously you carry on somehow, that's all you can do. That's no my point. My point is that people are underwriting the severity of the issue as if the worst thing that can happen is a fender bender. In the case of the moose the act was an honest accident that you probably couldn't have prevented. In the case of texting while driving homicide... you definitely could have prevented it and you're clearly 100% at fault. You don't cease to exist but the person you killed sure does and there's no going back from that. This is a serious issue, and it can have serious consequences. Anyone writing this off as some silly moral issue needs to reevaluate their view.

I think you're attaching an argument to individuals who've made no claim to it. I don't see anyone claiming that distracted driving (of any nature) is trivial, or non-serious. The argument I see being made is: we don't need more laws; those on the books already will suffice if enforced.

By "laws on the books" I was implying the laws against reckless endangerment, careless driving, involuntary manslaughter, etc. Not those against specific activities like talking on a phone without a handsfree kit, texting while driving, etc.

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